One of the very first locations posted on Google Sightseeing back in 2005 was Niagara Falls. Just a few miles away, though, is another site that the local tourist board is probably rather less proud of. In the late 1970s, the neighbourhood of Love Canal was at the centre of a huge public health scandal, after it emerged that it had been built on top of a landfill containing 21,000 tons of toxic waste, which subsequently began to leak. The canal itself1 dates back to the 1890s: an abortive attempt to bypass Niagara Falls that barely got started…